The present invention relates to the general technical field of appliances for heating or cooking food, which appliances are equipped with means for treating cooking odors, such means discharging a stream of hot air to the outside of the appliance.
The present invention relates to a food-cooking appliance comprising a cooking bowl designed to be closed by a lid in substantially airtight manner during cooking, heater means, and odor treatment means for treating cooking odors, which means discharge the treated stream of air to the outside of the appliance via an opening.
When cooking food, be it when steaming in rice cookers, for example, or when frying in oil in deep flyers, it is already known that, in order to avoid giving off cooking odors that are generally unpleasant into the immediate surroundings of the appliance, it is possible to make a cooking appliance with a lid suitable for closing the appliance in substantially airtight manner during cooking. However, for obvious safety reasons, it is always necessary to provide a leakage path via which the stream of air from the cooking can escape, and that is why it is known that such food-cooking appliances for household use can be equipped with cooking odor treatment means serving to treat the stream of air from the cooking in order to remove from that stream all or some of the volatile molecules responsible for cooking odor.
Various devices have been considered, and in particular the use of activated charcoal filters that make it possible to retain all or some of the fats, as described, for example, in Patent Document FR-1 568 985 or in Patent Document EP-150 516.
In all cases, such known devices always imply discharging from the deep fryer a stream of air at a temperature that is high and that varies depending on the type of the food-cooking appliance in question, and on the type of odor treatment used. Discharging such a stream of vapor, at such a temperature that varies, e.g. approximately in the range 100xc2x0 C. to 250xc2x0 C., naturally gives rise to a problem of safety for the user who might be scalded.
It has been proposed to try to direct the stream of hot air into zones that are not directly accessible to the hands of the user. However, it has become apparent that seeking to provide preferred exhaust paths complicates designing such food-cooking appliances of the rice cooker or deep fryer type, and is usually accompanied by a problem of poor high temperature behavior of the parts (generally made of plastic) that are situated in the vicinity of the outlet via which the stream of vapor exits.
An object assigned to the invention is therefore to remedy the various above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide a novel food-cooking appliance that makes it possible to discharge a stream of hot air to the outside of the appliance while being entirely safe for the user, and while being particularly simple and inexpensive to design and make.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that makes it possible to reduce the temperature of the stream of hot air to the outside of the appliance effectively and at lower cost.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that reduces the extent to which the vapors are perceived in the immediate surroundings of the cooking appliance.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that remains attractive in appearance and generally ergonomic.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that makes it entirely safe to use odor treatment means that discharge a stream of air at high temperature.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that is considerably safer to use.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that enables the members of the appliance that are sensitive to temperature to be cooled effectively.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel cooking appliance that is well suited to incorporating odor treatment means operating at high temperature, such as a catalytic device.
The objects assigned to the invention are achieved by means of a food-cooking appliance comprising a cooking bowl designed to be closed by a lid in substantially airtight manner during cooking, heater means, and odor treatment means for treating cooking odors, which means discharge a treated stream of air to the outside of the appliance via at least one opening, said food-cooking appliance being characterized in that it includes cooling means designed to generate a cooling stream directed to sweep across the opening.